Taking a Different Writing Route

TUESDAY:

So on Tuesday I had a conversation with my optimistic friend in Sally Rohan currently living in Rancagua, Chile. This conversation was totally game changing. Her blog (dontforgetaboutsally.blogspot.com) is always to happy and full of energy and so I decided to ask her if she was really this happy all the time and really felt this amazing about Chile. Because even though I am having the best experience of my life, I do feel homesick sometimes and get frustrated with my broken Spanish speaking and comprehension. Her response was incredible. She told me to forget about every thing else, because why be upset one second when I one year here and am eventually going to return to the United States. She said that my exchange re-starts tomorrow and everyday I have a new exchange. This way I have a new exchange to look forward to every day. This also means that I want to take advantage of every exchange because once the day concludes I have lost a full exchange. She also told me to write things in my blog that are more specific and less vague. Like about things that when they happened, I really wanted to tell someone. So this is what I am going to start doing. This was a very good way to end my night.

WEDNESDAY: 

Today was my English experiment. If you want to read about this in detail please read my previous post. Today was also my second chorus performance! At 6 we all piled into a warmup room at the Culture House in Coyhaique (La Casa de Cultura). For the next hour or so we warmed up, practiced our songs, and got outfitted to wait for another hour and a half since we were the last performers. During the hour and a half break, other than drinking our little pineapple juice boxes, I talked with one of my fellow chorus mates about random stuff and with my chorus mate/friend Michele; Michele went to Germany last year for a Rotary Exchange. We talked about exchange stuff, saving my money, traveling, our plans for the weekend, and a bunch of other insightful stuff. 

The theater that we performed in was actually very nice. I have no idea how the acoustics were because I wasn't in the audience but the seats were really nice and the whole presentation was very professional. We sang our songs to a 70 percent packed house and it was really fun. I really enjoy being in the choir. Like the performing arts at BBA, by joining choir I have now met 20 people I really would have never met outside of choir. 

After choir I ran to my grandma's house because a miracle happened, the Sox were on a Chilean ESPN channel, and SHE HAS CABLE! I got there for the bottom half of the 3rd inning. This was plenty of time because game went 10 innings and was 4 hours 15 minutes. It was an incredibly exciting game with a top of the 10th grand slam to win it. This was a pretty awesome 4 hours me because not only did I get to watch the Red Sox for the first time in 2 months but I also got to share baseball with my family. Baseball more or less doesn't exist in Chile. My family knew close to nothing about sport because of this. It was interesting explaining baseball at the most basic level. I had never encountered someone who literally had no understanding of the sport. It is pretty wacky when you start thinking about it.

               
            

                      Getting Ready to Sing!

The Sox Game

THURSDAY:

Thursday was a completely normal day, except something amazing happened. I understood what people were saying. In my classes, with my friends, I understood almost everything. What was a tired morning and struggle to get out of bed for school, turned into one of my favorite days at school to date. The only difference was comprehension. I have no idea if it has something to do with the fact that I didn't use English Wednesday but it inspired me to continue my weekly Wednesday non-englishness. There was one thing about this day that was really special, and it made me realize that some of the moments I am going to remember from this year are going to come in the simplest of forms. In my first class, after dragging my groggy gringo butt to school, I had the equivalent of English class in the US "Lenguaje" (language). After already being on top of the world from understanding the first 45 minutes--discussion portion--of class my teacher started the lesson. She pieced together a great lesson talking about narration and breaking it down into the simplest forms. She then asked a question about a verb. She put the the verb "to pass" on the board and asked the class, in what form is this verb. The answer was obviously the infinitive form so I answered immediately and with a very surprised and happy look on my teachers face she responded, very good Weston. People cheered and laughed and it was all good fun. But this was a special moment for me. I was so excited inside and so proud of myself that the feeling carried through the rest of the day and I told every one of my friends and family members. No one else knew the answer, yet it seemed so obvious to me. When I learned Spanish, this is exactly how I learned it. In forms and structure. My friends learned Spanish by living in a Spanish country. They don't know why they say things, they just say it. My teacher commented on my work that day and told me I understand grammar--thank you Mr. Nolan, Ms. Bove, and Mrs. Ritchie--than her students. During dinner my mother was explaining something in Spanish assuming that I did not understand it but in reality its something that I learned as RULE in Spanish one. When I arrived this whole language was a group of rules and structures, almost like math. Now, I am starting to realize that it's becoming natural and loose and normal, like speaking in English. I am finding the most insightful reflections in the simplest of things.

FRIDAY:

Friday was a day that was spent celebrating the upcoming vacation instead of regular classes. From Saturday to the following Monday we have off for the equivalent of July 4th here. The difference with Chile and the US is there are a lot of classic things, clothes, food, music, etc. that are brought forth during this period to celebrate. I had one class to start the day and then my vacation began! My second class was spent eating empanadas (classic Chilean food) with my classmates. I also had the opportunity to dance (attempt to dance as a joke) the national dance "La Cueca" with my teacher. She was actually really bad. In fact she knew less than me. La Cueca is in my opinion a beautiful dance and for me is incredibly hard, kind of like every other dance. I do not really know the origin to be truth full but basically its like old school flirting while turning around each other in figure 8s. That's about the loosest description I can give. The last portion of my school day was spent in the gym for a presentation of fellow classmates dancing La Cueca. Before the dancing everyone sang the Chilean National Anthem. I obviously do not know it so I tried singing it by reading the lips of people around me. That didn't work. The presentation started with 4 pairs of the best dancers in the school. It was so great. I don't know how they do it. Then it followed like this: a pair from each class was represented (four classes per grade). The 7-8th graders were together, Freshman-Sophomores, and Juniors-Seniors. Each group of grades were dancing not only for presentation but also for 3 judges. My class won! It was so great to watch and listen to the music. 

After school I went home to eat lunch cooked by my mom which was stellar as usual. Afterwards, because it was SUCH a nice day out today (it was finally in the mid-50s and clear blue sky) I climbed onto our roof and took some pictures. I loved it up there so much that I decided to bring my maté kit, my Harry Potter book and went up there to hang out for a little while. This little while turned into 3-6:30--I left twice to pee. It was honestly amazing. For the first two hours I sat there and people watched/whistled. It was so cool because no one thought to look up on a roof so no one noticed I was up there. Also, because I live in the middle of everything I got to stalk a LOT of people--including people I knew. I saw one of my classmates and yelled down to here and talked for a little which was pretty funny. People also would look around when I was whistling but couldn't locate the noise. Aside from the fact it was comical to watch people, I had 2 hours to myself without internet or any interaction. Just chilling on a roof drinking maté. Talk about a natural high. The last hour was sick as well. I decided why not bring my guitar up there. For the first fifteen minutes no one even turned their head, and I thought I was singing loud. Then people started to notice. One by one people turned their heads and took a picture or laughed. I pretended like I didn't notice until three girls a little bit younger than me stopped and listened. Then when I was done, they yelled up to me: requests, chanting one more, small talk, etc. It was pretty neat. Then a teacher walked by and took a picture. The whole thing was just kind of surreal. It was a moment in Coyhaique. Remember when the gringo play guitar on the roof in the middle of the city? That was pretty cool. After that experience I was inspire to finally purchase my own maté kit. It's beautiful. I love maté. 

The National Dance

Drinking Maté on my roof

SATURDAY:

Saturday I spent lounging around for most of the day. It was a very relaxing day just because I got to spend it with my brother and my two cousins. The one thing I can say about my two cousins and my brother is that they are incredibly close. When I am with them I really feel like I am with three best friends. It's very cute and it is inspiring me to reach out to my cousins more when I am back in the states. 

Today was the start of the independence week festivities. I have this entire week of from school which is the equivalent of July 4th week in the US. I am super excited to spend it all with my friends and family. The 4 cousins (including me) spend the late afternoon walking around and buying stuff related to the week ahead as well as did some general shopping. A lot of laughs were had. Saturday night I was to go to my first Chilean party! I was so excited. At about 7:30 my friend Oscar called me and said it was time to go set up and by snacks and decorations for the "Quincho" (kind of like a second house but it's really just a room to have parties and eat). At about 10:30 people started arriving and it was just such a great time. Parties in Chile are way different than the United States. We had a DJ and everything. It was like I was at a dance outside of school. The difference is the dancing isn't grinding for 3 hours. There are a bunch of different dances and they are more personable and in my opinion way for fun. I helped everybody clean up and with that hit the bed at 6 in the morning. This was a very full week and I am looking forward to many more to come.         

Fellow Rotarians Oscar and Michele